2 days/3 parks ALL the headlines

[Pirate1+Princess4]

Would someone be kind enough to comment on my plan and let me know if you would flip anything? Thanks in advance.

2 adults F58 and M21. He as been at age 9, and 17 with band. I, and the rest of the fam were there early March and all agreed 21 would love all the new stuff: Pandora, Star Wars... Guardians wasn't open when we went, but high on the list for him. The rest of EP is really not that important to him but will enjoy whatever filler we do there. We have no need for MK on this trip.
Visiting family on the east coast (lucked out with 2 rocket launches during our trip AND family got us base access for both)

Arriving POP Monday 8/29 whenever. We'll have a car and will have a VERY early AM due to rocket launch so will get there when we get there.
2 day park hoppers

Tuesday 8/30 ETPE RD HS then hop to EP for the SOLE purpose of GotG:
Wednesday 8/31 ETPE RD AK. Hop to EP or HS depending on how Tuesday went. Drive back to coast when we are (over)done.

Crowds should be MUCH less than our 1st week of March trip. I'd hate to see a 9/10 crowd if what we were in was 7-9. We found ourselves hangry with little food options after getting 3 headliners out of the way at each park, so we are going to take small sandwiches to eat after our first 3ish rides.

MUST DO at HS- RotR, MF, ToT
Other Important but won't ruin the trip if missed- RnR for 21, SDD for 58, TMM, MRR
The rest is fluff

Tuesday 8/30 HS hop to EP
What worked in March was Skyliner to HS for EPE RD. Rode RotR with less than 10 min wait. They may have waited 30 min for MF standby. Nobody noticed as the queue was cool and I was content on a bench near the giant MF. Used G+ for SDD. By then Toy Story Land was wall-to-wall people and no place to sit to eat (we were hangry by 9:30 AM. Would like to do the same, but will shoot for ToT for first G+ at 7AM instead of SDD. We stayed until about 4 or 5, when the park was too hot and too crowded. Did enjoy our meal at the Commissary.

At 7 AM he will try to get Guardians at EP for around 4PM or later paying for $ILL for just him.

How much time to allow to get from HS to EP and what is suggested mode of transport? Skyliner? Boat? Please don't say walk.

EP for Guardians and whatever we can fit in without a long wait. He would do Mission Space. Both would do TT. Will WS pavilions be über crowded? I've never really been able to chill and enjoy them and would like to. Won't wait in long line for Remy and won't pay $ILL for it if that still exists. WILL get a baguette in France, take a picture, and make his sister jealous. Will Soarin' have a long line after 2PM? I've only rope dropped and never waited more than 20 minutes, if that

Wednesday 8/31 AK possibly hop to EP or HS
MUST DO- both Pandora rides, EE, Safari. Rest is fluff. EE wasn't operating in March so my timing and mojo may be off.

What worked in March: ETPE RD Avatar, then scurry to Na/vi River. 20+ minute wait for THE BEST Safari ride EVER. We went over to Dino and NEVER have to do that again. Hangry and NOTHING open. Went to Rafiki and won't do that again. in 2009 we spent hours there. Now not worth the train ride IMO.

EE wasn't open so we called it an early day and went back to POP. Came back later to the wonder of Pandora after dark and rode Avatar 2 more times with little wait. FAVORITE part for most of us. Not an option this time as park hours are shorter and sunset is 10 minutes before park closes.

Where do I fit in EE and Safari with G+? Both are MUST do.

Appreciate any insight. Hopeing the crowds are more manageable.

 

[parasail_of_congress]

We were there all last week and visited all parks twice, so I think I can give you some info for your trip.

Arriving POP Monday 8/29 whenever. We'll have a car and will have a VERY early AM due to rocket launch so will get there when we get there.
2 day park hoppers

Tuesday 8/30 ETPE RD HS then hop to EP for the SOLE purpose of GotG:
Wednesday 8/31 ETPE RD AK. Hop to EP or HS depending on how Tuesday went. Drive back to coast when we are (over)done.

The earlier you get to HS, the better. We got there around 7:45 both days we went, and even though one of the days we waited only 20 minutes for Rise, SDD was already up to an hour when we got off.

Crowds should be MUCH less than our 1st week of March trip. I'd hate to see a 9/10 crowd if what we were in was 7-9. We found ourselves hangry with little food options after getting 3 headliners out of the way at each park, so we are going to take small sandwiches to eat after our first 3ish rides.

We did the exact same thing almost every day - sandwiches around 11 and QS around 3, so crowds were not bad.

MUST DO at HS- RotR, MF, ToT
Other Important but won't ruin the trip if missed- RnR for 21, SDD for 58, TMM, MRR
The rest is fluff

You shouldn't have any problem doing those three first thing with minimal wait, assuming the rides aren't down. SDD and TSM are the tricky ones there. TSM is low early but steady above 40 minutes throughout the day.

Tuesday 8/30 HS hop to EP
What worked in March was Skyliner to HS for EPE RD. Rode RotR with less than 10 min wait. They may have waited 30 min for MF standby. Nobody noticed as the queue was cool and I was content on a bench near the giant MF. Used G+ for SDD. By then Toy Story Land was wall-to-wall people and no place to sit to eat (we were hangry by 9:30 AM. Would like to do the same, but will shoot for ToT for first G+ at 7AM instead of SDD. We stayed until about 4 or 5, when the park was too hot and too crowded. Did enjoy our meal at the Commissary.

We did not buy G+ or ILL for anything because we had two days at each park, but I think your logic is sound.

At 7 AM he will try to get Guardians at EP for around 4PM or later paying for $ILL for just him.

Unless you have a park reservation to Epcot, you can't try for the virtual queue until after you park hop. I believe you can buy the ILL at 7 am though. I'm not sure if it's best to just wait to see if you make it into the queue or just buy it when you have a chance.

How much time to allow to get from HS to EP and what is suggested mode of transport? Skyliner? Boat? Please don't say walk.

With no weather or mechanical issues, HS to EP on the Skyliner is around 20 minutes. I suspect the boat might be about the same.

EP for Guardians and whatever we can fit in without a long wait. He would do Mission Space. Both would do TT. Will WS pavilions be über crowded? I've never really been able to chill and enjoy them and would like to. Won't wait in long line for Remy and won't pay $ILL for it if that still exists. WILL get a baguette in France, take a picture, and make his sister jealous. Will Soarin' have a long line after 2PM? I've only rope dropped and never waited more than 20 minutes, if that

With the Food and Wine Festival going on, there are a good amount of people in WS, but it's not terribly overwhelming (at least, not on a weekday). Mission Space will be 20 or fewer minutes after 4. If you don't mind TT single rider, that would save you a good chunk of time. Remy will have a 40-plus minute wait throughout the day and even at close (I had hoped it would move faster so we could see the fireworks, but we jumped in at 8:30 and didn't get out until 9:20 last Wednesday). Soarin' basically has no lines after about 4pm.

Wednesday 8/31 AK possibly hop to EP or HS
MUST DO- both Pandora rides, EE, Safari. Rest is fluff. EE wasn't operating in March so my timing and mojo may be off.

What worked in March: ETPE RD Avatar, then scurry to Na/vi River. 20+ minute wait for THE BEST Safari ride EVER. We went over to Dino and NEVER have to do that again. Hangry and NOTHING open. Went to Rafiki and won't do that again. in 2009 we spent hours there. Now not worth the train ride IMO.

If you are ahead of the pack at RD, this seems correct for those three rides.

EE wasn't open so we called it an early day and went back to POP. Came back later to the wonder of Pandora after dark and rode Avatar 2 more times with little wait. FAVORITE part for most of us. Not an option this time as park hours are shorter and sunset is 10 minutes before park closes.

Where do I fit in EE and Safari with G+? Both are MUST do.

EE was up and down the entire week we were there. If you can catch it right after it's back up, you'll have little to no wait. Also, single rider is available there. Also, even if you want to do FoP at the very end of the day, hit EE before that and you shouldn't have more than a 20-minute wait (as long as the ride is up the majority of the day). On one of our days at AK, we rode FoP last and finished the ride around 8:20, so it was pretty dark (and beautiful) in Pandora by that time.

Good luck!

 

[Pirate1+Princess4]

Thank you SOOOO much for the reply. My kids learned the beauty of single rider at 9 and 11... LIFE CHANGING. Thank you for the reminder of that option,
Some rides 21 will be by himself while I chill on a bench. Your late day EP experience is helpful. I think we'll plan on that to hit a few things. We were fortunate to do Remy in March at ETPE and got off the ride before the park was officially open for ETPE. Knowing 21's priorities and my experience, he will be OK if he doesn't get to do it.

So, at AK, if we do FoP, Na'vi at ETPE RD, should I try to get G+ for EE or Safari for our 4th ride. I may or may not ride EE, it will be a game day decision and we would both be OK with single rider. I guess I'm concerned that the line would stack long while we are doing standby on Safari. Since single rider is an option, would he jump to the front of the line pretty quickly without G+?

 

[Miffy]

I can't really comment on the rest of your plan--and anyway others have done that already--but plan to RD DAK as early as you can stand it, because even if you're near the front of the line at RD, you may end up having to wait 40 or 60 minutes for FoP. The line for it builds very very quickly. And since you're going to hop and not be at DAK at the end of the day, I can't recommend getting in line near park close.

What I can recommend, however, if you don't want to wait in line, is to purchase an ILL$ for it, if that's in your budget. RotR at DHS is another story. If you're at the front of the RD crowd, you probably won't have that long a wait there. I, however, purchase ILL$. It's just easier even if it is more $.

 

[parasail_of_congress]

Thank you SOOOO much for the reply. My kids learned the beauty of single rider at 9 and 11... LIFE CHANGING. Thank you for the reminder of that option,
Some rides 21 will be by himself while I chill on a bench. Your late day EP experience is helpful. I think we'll plan on that to hit a few things. We were fortunate to do Remy in March at ETPE and got off the ride before the park was officially open for ETPE. Knowing 21's priorities and my experience, he will be OK if he doesn't get to do it.

So, at AK, if we do FoP, Na'vi at ETPE RD, should I try to get G+ for EE or Safari for our 4th ride. I may or may not ride EE, it will be a game day decision and we would both be OK with single rider. I guess I'm concerned that the line would stack long while we are doing standby on Safari. Since single rider is an option, would he jump to the front of the line pretty quickly without G+?

For Safari, I think it will depend on how early you get to the park to do FOP and Navi before the lines start building. I've also read different things about when Safari actually opens - seems as if it should open at the regular park opening (8 am), but sometimes it opens sooner, sometimes later. We rode Safari later in the afternoon to avoid that because the wait is 20 minutes or less, but if you are hopping, I guess you won't have that option.

For EE, the single-rider lined seemed relatively short the times we were there, even when the lines were long. I think the couple of times my daughters did it, the posted wait was 30-40, and they waited no more than 10 minutes to ride.

 

[Pirate1+Princess4]

Just wanted to come back and thank you for the advice. We had a great time!

RD HS ETPE. RofR was down at ETPE opening. With smart planning and G+ we (mostly HE) ended up doing MFx4, RotR, TT, RnRx2, MMRR, TMM, StarTours. Vibed in Galaxy's Edge where he got blue milk and and expensive coke bottle ornament because he could. Tried the colored popcorn. Interesting flavor we liked.

Hopped to EP. Tapped in about 3 PM. There were still VQ slots for GotG, so we got those. Rode Soarin' then headed over to GotG for his 4 PM $ILL. Did Test Track and Mission Space (single). Thinking about wandering away when the boarding group was called for GotG. So my son rode twice (he rode on mine). Meanwhile got a G+ for Remie. We were toast by then, grabbed a baguette in France and headed back to POP.

Next day RD AK ETPE, Missed the first bus, and he had trouble with finger scan at tapstile. Still got to FoP with little wait. We were able to do that plus Na'vi, Safari, EE. Could have walked on to EE a few times. Back to Pandora to vibe the land. One more riide on FoP with standby wait tof 35 min (the ONLY ride we waited for). Meanwhile EE was down and we got a notification in MDE about the closure. Left the park about noon, doing all the things he wanted. Back to POP for lunch and car.

It was HOT, but really enjoyed the low crowds so we could enjoy the theming. Someday I'll go back where I can just hang out and enjoy WS, vibe the lands, and not feel like we have to do "all the things".